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Selected Essays on Basque Dance |
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by Lisa M.
Corcostegui |
Please do not cite or reproduce without permission |
Here's a list of some of my work on Basque dance. I
wrote most of these essays while participating in the Tutorial Ph.D. in Basque
Studies (Anthropology) at the Center for Basque Studies
at the University of Nevada, Reno. |
The Cavalcade of Luzaide, Nafarroa
and Benafarroa - This is a descriptive essay about the Cavalcade
characteristic of Benafarroa and Luzaide. It describes the characters, order of the
procession and dances. |
Transcending Boundaries: Envisioning Basque Shamanism - This essay focuses on Basque folk traditions from two regions: Lapurdi and the
Baztan Valley of Nafarroa. The costumes of the Kottilun Gorria from Lapurdi and the
Yoaldunak from Ituren and Zubieta are analyzed under the rubric of shamanism as set forth
by Mircea Eliade. |
Ethnicity, Nationalism, Identity and Their Role in Basque
Dance - This bibliographic essay explores the phenomena of
ethnicity, nationalism and identity and the ways they articulate with dance in a Basque
context. |
Dance as a Window to Cultural Understanding: The
Development of Dance Studies and Dance Among Basques with a Review of the Literature
This essay reviews the literature of dance in general and also that of dance
among Basques. Here I chart the territory in which I will situate my own work on
Basque dance. |
Published Articles: |
Moving Emblems: Basque Dance and Symbolic Ethnicity in The Basque Diaspora, The Diáspora Vasca. Edited by William A. Douglass,
Carmelo Urza, Linda White, and Joseba Zulaika. Reno: Basque Studies Program,
1999. pp.249-273. |
Dancing into the Past in
Faces. March 1998. pp.22-25. |
Inscribing the Other: Orientalism
and the Textual Construction of Basques in Anglophone Travel Literature - This essay examines the ways in which alterity is produced textually.
Because of the Basques' status as Europe's "mystery people," they are
particularly vulnerable to being "orientalized" or becoming inscribed as the
autochthonous Other. The role of dance as an embodied activity and how it is used
strategically in Orientalist discourse is explored. Published in the
Journal of the Society of Basque Studies in America. Volume
XXI - Year 2001. pp. 35-47.
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Four Weddings and Some
Funerals: Basque Dance in Contemporary Rites of Passage -
This
essay explores the role of dance in marriage and funeral ceremonies in
Basque communities of the homeland and the diaspora.
Anthropologists have long been interested in rituals associated
with life's transitional moments including marriage and death, but these
constructed performances are not just relics of the remote past or
practices of primitive cultures. As
society has developed and become more secular, some ritual elements and
symbols have lost significance and disappeared; these are sometimes
replaced by others to better serve the needs of a community.
Traditional dance can be a powerful symbol of identity among
Basques and over the last few decades we have seen that it has often been
incorporated into these ceremonial rites of passage.
Through the use of several examples I will illustrate ways in which
identity is asserted through ceremonial dance in a modern ritual context.
To be published in 2003
Tinta Annex: Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Graduate Conference
on Lusophone and Hispanic Literature and Culture, Department
of Spanish and Portuguese, University of California, Santa Barbara. |
To the Beat
of a Different Drum: Basque Dance in the Homeland and in the
Diaspora. Doctoral Dissertation. 2005. |

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Copyright © 2001 L.Corcostegui
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